Milton finance subcommittee presses budget questions as schools prepare override vote

Members of the Warrant Committee Finance Subcommittee met March 10 to review Milton Public Schools’ FY26 budget request, pressing district staff for details about a structural deficit, out-of-district special-education costs, positions added since the last override and possible fee increases for extracurricular programs as the district prepares for a proposed override vote.

The subcommittee—meeting in advance of a full warrant-committee presentation on March 18—heard from district staff that the FY26 “level service” request has been reworked to reflect actual costs rather than carry-forward budget assumptions. Katie, a district staff member working on the budget, said, “the budget document, we bridle out every single line that makes up the entire school department budget,” and that the exhibits show full-time equivalents and the line-item costs used to build the FY26 request.

Why it matters: the district seeks to address what officials described as a roughly $2.3 million structural deficit tied largely to special-education, transportation, utilities and substitute coverage. Committee members were told that about $800,000 of the FY26 request is intended to rebuild a circuit-breaker reserve for special-education reimbursements; together with other adjustments, staff said the net program and…